Crittenden County remains positively identified as man who vanished two years ago

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CRITTENDEN COUNTY, Arkansas-- A body recently discovered in Crittenden County has been positively identified as a man who was reported missing two years ago.

Blake Wood’s body was found at the Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge by a hunter looking for deer antlers.

"The crime lab has confirmed that it is, in fact, Blake Wood that was given to me yesterday," said Chief Investigator Todd Grooms.

Up until last Friday, Wood’s family had no answers. They’d been searching for their son for two years.

Grooms has been standing by them the entire journey making this quest for closure personal for him.

"We’ve done several searches. We’ve been all over different states following different leads that we had. None of the leads panned out."

From digging to bringing out the search dogs and dive teams, investigators searched for Wood, never losing hope that despite the gruesome rumors that his death was drug-related, they’d find the family the closure they needed to go on.

"I just wanted mama to have some peace to have a chance to be able to bury her son," said Grooms.

Grooms was even able to lay the family’s fear of a gruesome dismembering to rest with Thursday’s discovery.

"Some of his clothes were still intact, along with his wallet and ID."

Now that the family knows that Wood didn’t just vanish, there’s yet another question that still awaits an answer.

"I want to find out what happened to him," said Grooms.

The reason investigators searched this area before is because Wood grew up in the area and they knew he was familiar with it.